If you like community and healthy food, then this is the place for you. I am looking for community participation in being willing to host events either at your home, clubhouse or even at the park. Please contact me through the messaging if you want to host an event.

I ask that all members joining have their email settings set to at least allow organizer messaging. I understand that you may not want to have it open to all messages to cut down on the number of emails you receive daily, however, it is important that the organizers be able to reach you if needed.

Participants need not be full vegan, however, for our potlucks all dishes brought or prepared must be vegan (preferably whole food plant-based rather than processed foods). I understand some people will be new to vegan cooking, and may feel more comfortable purchasing food than cooking it at first, and that is okay. Our hope is that eventually, everyone will become comfortable with preparing the food themselves that they bring to potlucks. That is one of the beautiful things about potlucks, we get to share recipes. Absolutely no meat or dairy products will be allowed. If someone is bringing something store bought, be sure to read the label. Watch for things like casein and whey which are dairy based. If in doubt about an ingredient, then it is best to not purchase that item.

If you want to learn how to prepare your favorite food but need ideas on how to veganize it, one of my favorite recipe sites is One Green Planet. They have just about every vegan recipe for anything you could possibly want to make. But there are also many other great vegan bloggers on the web, so explore with some simple Google terms; "vegan" "recipe" and any ingredient or dish that you like, and dozens of recipes will pop up. Another great place to get good vegan recipes is the library. There are many vegan cookbooks available. Have fun with it, make the dishes your own by switching up ingredients and adding different spices.

Housekeeping Notes: Due to people being notorious on meetup for not showing up, since most events will be at peoples homes or with a group meeting up with each other where members are preparing food with the number of RSVPs in mind, there will be a 3 strike policy. Third time as a no show you will be removed from the group. It is a courtesy to let people know if you cannot attend an event. Please change your RSVP at least 48 hours prior to all meetups. This allows the host and attendees to adjust their recipe portions and allows anyone on a waitlist enough notice to attend and prepare food in your stead. Thank you for your cooperation in this matter.

We will also be removing members who have not visited the group in over a year. The group initially started as an all raw foods group, but has since evolved to allow vegan cooked foods, and even further since I took it over in February 2018 with a greater focus on whole-food plant-based nutrition. Therefore I will slowly be removing all the members who have no interest in the group any more or may have moved out of the area. This will take time since I have look into their attendance history and remove each one individually sending them a personal note explaining why they are being removed. So you will see the member count reduced significantly. This will help keep the privacy of the current members safeguarded. If someone is removed it does not prevent them from rejoining. They may find that the group now reflects their interests but just did not know it has changed.

Lastly, Meetup Corp charges the organizer (me) $20 a month for the platform. So I am asking for contributions from members to help defray the costs. There is a contribution button on the home page for your convenience. Just an FYI Meetup takes processing fees out of all contribution payments for credit card processing and for Meetup to manage the funds. So few dollars contribution for the year will be applied to the Meetup costs and secondary expenses such as paper plates, eating utensils, napkins, etc. Eventually, if enough people contribute I hope to one day be able to pay for permanent venues to host our groups and to bring lots of fun events to our members. If this puts a hardship on anyone, then you do not have to contribute. But I do appreciate any contributions given by members. WEPay link is on the home page. You do not need to register they accept most major credit cards.

I look forward to our sharing events. Please feel free to contact me with any questions, concerns, and suggestions.